Broadband barren lands cry foul

News that BT has set criteria to determine whether it is worth its while rolling out DSL exchanges in parts of rural Britain has angered silicon.com readers.

Many of you have written in, or registered reader comments, claiming BT is wrong to insist on establishing demand of between 200 and 500 users before it updates the exchange (http://www.silicon.com/a54003 ). Other have said it is time the government subsidised the process.

Here is a selection of your comments.

Broadband for Everyone:
By Sean Williams

If BT want to offer a service, offer it to EVERYONE not just the most financially viable (sorry BT that's the price of being a monopoly). It's unfair for BT to discriminate against people in rural areas. Offering broadband in less populated areas will return investment only not as quick.

If BT do not want to offer the service in specific areas they should loose the right to do so permanently to allow smaller companies to fill the gap. Most other smaller telecommunications companies fear offering their own services because as soon as they start to make money BT will swoop in, undercut them and put them out of business.

BT is right:
By Dave Knowles

I fully support BT's position on rural broadband. BT are not in the business of losing vast sums of money converting exchanges when only a handful of people would actually sign up.

Surely, it is in the interests of both the consumer and the telecoms industry to rollout the broadband when economically viable, otherwise the industry would go to the wall.

I do agree however that all of us should be entitled to broadband from an ethical and social justice perspective, although I'm not sure who should pay for it.

Come on BT, get off the fence
By Anon

While I agree with the concept that BT are not a charity, they do have the corner on a service that many people rely on. It is expected that in such cases it is possible to have lines that make less than others and that they have to take some sort of risk on this.

How are we to pre order if we don't know the exchange will be upgraded. It's nonsense. Come on BT, get off the fence and take a chance. We'll all get it eventually, make sure it's from you by offering a better product.

Subsidise ADSL:
By Paul Tomlinson

Well having just visited a friend in Sweden who has got a 2.5Mb ADSL link for approximately £20 a month I think it would be a good idea to follow their idea and subsidise ADSL. If the government really wants a Broadband Britain then it is the only way to go.

Another call for subsidy:
By Mark Nicholls

I don't think anyone expects charity from BT so I'm entirely behind this. If subsidy is required it should come from other bodies within the community.

But it would help if BT at least knew about its own scheme. A search of their site reveals nothing. Come on BT, tell me how many subscribers I need to get to ensure the exchange is converted. How long it will take will help too!

Disgusting
By Matt Jenkins

I think BT are absolutely appalling! Not only are they saying they have no plans for providing ADSL to the area I live in (a mere 7 miles from Gloucester, on the main trunk road between Gloucester and Chepstow), but they have the cheek to put the price of surftime up!

I can only assume that this is to push more people away from dialup and on to broadband.

Thanks a lot BT! Not only do you refuse to give me anything better than Surftime on ISDN, but you make me pay through the nose for it! Pretty soon my annual internet bill will be approaching the level where I may as well buy a leased line! (not that BT would install one for me. They wouldn't even install me a second phone line because it meant doing some digging!!!)